Seminar at Prana Yoga Studio

In June we had the good fortune of meeting Lisa, the owner of the Prana Yoga Center in Chicago, Illinois. The is a very dynamic and spiritually centered yoga program with many deeply devoted practitioners. At Prana Yoga, I gave a seminar on Meditation and Astrology. This seminar includes an understanding of one’s true self, an introduction to Bhakti yoga, and a guided meditation with kirtan. This was a great experience for me and the people who attended. It started off with a discussion about astrology and the basic concepts of this ancient science, including what the different planets and houses represent. We then had a very interactive and esoteric discussion about karma, free will, destiny, and astrology. The dynamic group of attendees had many very intelligent and insightful questions. I told them the story of Parasara and his disciple. The disciples asked him what are the qualities of a noble person who is devoted to God and the answer was Salt, Chicken, a Crane, and You. We had a wonderful discussion about this humorous yet deeply valuable story from ancient india. Then we performed a very powerful guided meditation followed but kirtan, all in all a very inspiring and spiritually uplifting time.

I was also able to do Astrological reading for many of the yoga practitioners and attendees. As I have seen many times in the past, people who are on the spiritual path are many times protected from the effects of bad planets by the mercy of Krishna. Here also, some people with malefic influences on the astrological chart did not feel the full effect of the malefic planets because they had gone deeper into their spiritual life which brings the grace of God into our life. Radhanath Swami tells the story of the fish who swims at the surface of the Ganges and is swallowed by a Bird. His realization was that if that fish had swam deeper it would not have been swallowed by the bird. For us this means, if we live deeper in our spiritual life, understanding this world to be temporary place, the storms and predators of this world will not affect us to the same degree. This is a very profound realization that we can all try to understand and by that take our spiritual life very seriously.